A new Massachusetts Institute of Technology study on the potential impacts of the proposed SunZia transmission line on White Sands Missile Range validates concerns regarding the project, a U.S. state lawmaker said earlier this week.
Speaking to reporters during a telephone conference call on Tuesday, U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce of New Mexico said the study, which has not been made public, “well validated” the concerns of the U.S. Department of Defense and outlined three specific points of concern regarding the installation. Scheduled for completion in 2018, the proposed SunZia project would transport energy from Arizona and New Mexico to customers and markets across the Desert Southwest. The 500-mile high-voltage transmission line includes a 45-mile stretch through White Sands’ northern extension area.
According to Pearce, the study cited potential for “vertical obstruction” of missile tests because of the height of the lines, the possibility of debris falling on the lines if a missile fails during testing and potential electromagnetic interference from transmission infrastructure.
“The last thing New Mexico wants to do is shutdown 30 percent” of the missile range’s mission, which the study showed would be necessary to prevent problems from occurring, Pearce said. “This would impact the missions of Holloman Air Force base as well and we could lose them both.”
“I’m calling on SunZia to mitigate these problems by either burying the line or moving it north of the White Sands extension area. This study was done for the benefit of SunZia, and it validated the DOD’s position. It’s not the answer SunZia wanted, but they need to accept it.”
SunZia spokesman Ian Calkins disagreed with Pearce’s assessment of the MIT study, saying in a statement the study didn’t find serious problems, and the problems it found could be mitigated easily.
The MIT Lincoln Lab “reviewed White Sands’ concerns about electromagnetic interference and found little substance with it and that mitigation can be achieved by maintaining a minimum separation of sensitive electronic equipment from SunZia’s lines of 200 feet in any direction,” he said. In addition, “the assessment of the probability of [debris falling on the lines due to a missile test failure] was very low and they offered some simple mitigation to handle that issue.”
More work is also needed on the issue of whether SunZia’s lines and towers could obstruct low-flying cruise missile tests, Calkins added, as only one route was considered.
U.S. senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) also released a statement on the MIT study Tuesday, saying, “I encourage the Department of Defense to make the unclassified results of this study available to the public, for we have concluded that there are pragmatic solutions to allow SunZia and White Sands Missile Range to mutually exist. The administration should issue the record of decision on SunZia’s NEPA process. This is about diversifying New Mexico’s economy, lessening our dependence on federal dollars, and charting a course for a more prosperous future. SunZia should get built.”
“I have consistently fought to support the state-of-the-art military training, research and development, and testing that occurs in New Mexico, and I will continue to do so. But it is also important to find common ground that does not preclude one national priority over the other when both priorities can be realized, especially when it means so many jobs for New Mexicans.”
